New Release Book Review: Restoration – Verity Fassbinder Book 3 by Angela Slatter

Restoration…

About the Book:

Walking between the worlds has always been dangerous – but this time V’s facing the loss of all she holds dear.

Verity Fassbinder thought no boss could be worse than her perfectionist ex-boyfriend – until she grudgingly agreed to work for a psychotic fallen angel. And dealing with a career change not entirely of her own choosing is doing nothing to improve V’s already fractious temper. The angel is a jealous – and violent – employer, so she’s quit working for the Weyrd Council and sent her family away, for their own safety. Instead of indulging in domestic bliss, she’s got to play BFFs with the angel’s little spy, Joyce the kitsune assassin . . . and Joyce comes with her own murderous problems.

The angel has tasked V with finding two lost treasures, which would be hard enough even without a vengeful Dusana Nadasy on her heels. And Inspector McIntyre won’t stop calling: the bodies of Normal women who disappeared decades before are turning up, apparently subjected to Weyrd magics. Angelic demands or not, this isn’t something she can walk away from.

And the angel is getting impatient for results . . .

My Thoughts:

This third instalment in the Verity Fassbinder series opens with a note from the author:

“Greetings, dear reader, and welcome to the last of the Verity books in the first trilogy!”

Note the last part of that sentence: ‘in the first trilogy’. I am holding onto that little life line, nice and tight, and considering it as my message from beyond that Restoration will not be the last we hear of Verity Fassbinder – even if it does take a little while for her to surface again.

Now, I wasn’t too sure where Angela was going to take us in Restoration. We knew Verity was being forced to give up her Weryd work on account of having a ‘special mission of the crazed Angelic sort’ at the forefront of her dealings, and then there was her beautiful little family, still so new, banished before she could even process it. But as is the way with Verity, Weryd stuff keeps on happening and she just keeps on getting drawn into it – despite her protestations that she’s not on Weryd detail any longer.

There are all sorts of people, Weyrd and normal, popping up from the past in Restoration, as well as a few new diabolical beings clawing their way up and into other people’s business. So, while Verity is officially on task 101 Angel mission, the Weryd work just keeps getting tangled into her days, until of course, we see exactly just how interwoven everything in the Weryd-verse really is. Once again, Angela has blown my mind with her plotting and world building, connecting dots from long ago and drawing a picture I couldn’t have even come close to imagining. The action is non-stop, the characterisation on point and the wit just keeps on rolling.

Verity herself is coming up against many new things in Restoration, almost like she’s been forced to arrive at a crossroads with the combination of this new mission along with everything else that has come her way in recent times. There’s contemplating parenthood in her downtime:

“This was the blood that ran through Ziggi’s veins.
My veins.
My little girl’s veins.
The blood of my however-many-greats-grandmother or aunty, Frau Berhta, so brimful of attitude that a god had given in to her demands. I thought about apples and trees and felt sort of proud but sort of terrified. None of this boded well for Maisie’s teenage years.”

And making new friends with old enemies:

“’Why are you being so agreeable, Constable?’
‘Because you’re going in there alone and I’m hoping your last moments will be pleasant?’
And at last I realised that Lacy Oldman was trying to be friends with me. Well, it was four o’clock in the morning…
‘So, you know that bad things happen to my friends, right?’ I started. ‘I mean, there’s a whole range of stuff: exile, beatings, stabbings, drowning, down to occasional burns and bumps that are hardly worth mentioning. Oh, and car accidents! Let’s talk car accidents.’”

And as is her way, Verity is all about the persuasion when she needs someone to step up and do their part in order to get the job done:

‘“I do not care how long it takes me but I will make you regret the day you were born, created, hatched, whatever the fuck happens with angels. And before you say something whiny like, ‘Oh it’s too late, Verity Fassbinder, my life has been a vale of regret since I let my brother carry out his plan all those centuries ago’, remember this: I have Olivia Fassbinder on my side. And if you think I’m bad? She’s angel-enhanced worse.”
He gave me a long look. “What do you want me to do?”’

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better conclusion to this ‘first’ trilogy (I’m never letting this go). Plenty of feels, and even some moments when I almost shed a tear – okay, I did! But seriously, those moments! It was bittersweet to finish this novel, so satisfied was I with the way it all wrapped up but of course sad that I did not have another one to immediately reach for. I will leave you now with Verity’s final thoughts, a fitting way to end the series and this review:

“All our days are numbered, but you can waste your life pondering what that mysterious number is. Or you can just live it as hard as you can, make good memories, good friends, love your family by blood and choice, and those who stand by you.”

Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Restoration for review.

About the Author:

Angela Slatter is the award-winning author of eight short story collections, including A Feast of Sorrows: Stories, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales. She has won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award and five Aurealis Awards. Her short stories have appeared widely, including in annual British, Australian and North American Best Of anthologies, and her work has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Polish, Romanian, and Japanese. Vigil was her first solo novel, and the sequel Corpselight was released in July 2017. Angela lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Restoration
Published by Hachette Australia
Released on 14th August 2018
Available in Paperback and eBook